If you did not know, my wife and I just had a child 8 days ago. This child has been out of the house for his pediatrician’s appointment among other journey’s, but his real inaugural first day out I’ve decided to take him to the new Barneys in San Francisco. And what might I find at Barneys but the awesome collection by Balenciaga.

1918 saw the founding of Cristobal Balenciaga’s first haute couture house in San Sébastian, Spain. Local admiration for his designs was so strong that a second haute couture house was opened in Madrid and a third in Barcelona. In 1937, 10, Avenue George V became the Parisian home of Cristobal Balenciaga’s creative influence. Balenciaga’s Paris flagship store is still located at this address.

This fall / winter collection is what I would consider an over-the-top, erotic triumph of a collection. All the dresses in the collection combine a number of elements that would not normally work well together, I would think, except that Balenciaga’s vision has made it so. The satiny fabric is reminiscent of a Chinese silk or the fabric of a kimono, but the fabric is pulled tight a around a peticoat-like structure to create a voluptuous hourglass form. To pile on style over style doesn’t stop there for Balenciaga. For instance, all the dresses in the collection have large shoulders creating an erotic puffiness exaggerating the 1940s style shoulder pad look. The final detail that caught my eye was the enlarged baseball seam along the sides of the dress emphasizing the curve of the miniskirt. I’m in love yet again.